Offshore Energy Company Free of $2.4 Million Payment to Interior

DCOR LLC, an offshore energy company, can avoid paying an additional $2.4 million in royalties to the Interior Department’s Office of Natural Resources Revenue, a federal court said.

The company owns and operates oil and gas platforms under federal leases off the Southern California coast. The company filed its second amended complaint in May 2022 with the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas challenging ONRR’s director ordering three royalty payments totaling more than $19.4 million following an audit.

The court said the decision arbitrarily increased royalties under the first of the three orders following the audit because ...